Thick butt shingle



Jan. 21, 1941. B. swEEDLl-:R

THICK BUTT SHINGLE Original Filed Oct. 11, 1935 mm Nm. um

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a l. im.. @ANT NN INVENTOR FM/AM/A/ .Sn/550452 Patented Jan. 2l, 1941THICK BUTT SHINGLE BenjaminA Sweedler, Larchmont, N. Y., assigner,

by mesne assignments, to The Patent and Licensing Corporation, New York,N. Y., a corporation of Massachusetts Original application ctober 11,1935, Serial No.

Divided and this application August 2,

` 1938, Serial N0.'222,590

comme.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No.44,495, led October 11, 1935.

This invention relates to shingle elements and more particularly. to themanufacture of thick butt strip shingles having tabs disposed along onelongitudinal edge thereof, the edges of the shingles being sealed bysuitable waterproofing material. The term shingle is used herein in a 0broad sense and is intended to include elements employed for roofing,siding and other analogous construction purposes.

f Sealed edge thick butt shingle elements have heretofore been made byhand-dipping a granu- 5 lar surfaced coated felt base intov a bath ofmolten asphalt or other bituminous material, the elements allowed todrain and then surfaced with granular material. Such hand-dipping operaltions are expensive, since they involve time-con- 0 suming hand laborand waste of asphalt.

In Patents Nos. 1,842,448 of January 26, 1932, and`1,927,824 ofSeptember 26, 1933, there is disclosed a continuous process of makingthick butt shingles with sealed edges. The invention herein 5 is in thenature of an improvement on the continuous process disclosed in thesepatents.

It is an object of this invention to provide a process of making sealededge thick butt shingles which process can be carried out in existingroofi ing machines with little modification thereof, and which processinvolves no manual manipulative stepsuch as the dipping treatment of theprior practice. Another object is to provide a process of making thickbutt shingles which results in a 5 novel product of enhancedarchitectural value.`

This invention comprehends both the process of making the shingle andthe resultant shingle product.

In accordance with this invention, one or more i stripes of coatingmaterial, certain of which may be of a width suiiicient to coat the tabportions of two elements' cut tab-to-tab from the web, are applied to aweb of roofing material. The number of stripes applied depends upon thewidth of i the starting roong web and the number of shingles it isdesired to cut therefrom. For example, if a web of a width sufticient toproduce four shingle elements cut longitudinally from the width thereofis employed, two stripes each of a Width suiiicient tov elements may beapplied to the web, If a web of a width suiiicient to produce anoddvnumber of shingles cut longitudinally from the width thereof isemployed, one of the stripes may be of a width such as to cover the tabportions of coat the `tab portions. of two only one element and theother stripes may be of a width to coat the tab portions of two elementscut'tab-to-tab. After the coating stripes are applied they may besurfaced with mineral grit such as crushed stone, talc, mica or other ofthe surfacing materials employed in the roofing art. If desired, beforeor after the application of stripes, coating material may be applied toone or both sides of the web and surfaced with mineral grit.

The thus coated and surfaced web may then be cut longitudinallysubstantially midway along the aforementioned stripes of coatingmaterial each of a width sucient to coat the tab portions of twoelements to produce strips each having a relatively thick and thinportion and having tabdeiining cutouts formed in the thick portion.Coating material such as asphalt or other bituminous material may thenbe applied to each strip covering either the side containing theaforementioned stripe or the opposite side and extending over the entirearea of said side and .also over the cut edges, sealing the same. Beforethe application of the last mentioned coating material, the cut stripsmay be separated to expose the cut edges, so that coating material maybe readily applied thereto. 'I'he coating material thus applied may besurfaced with granular material and the strips cut transversely intoshingle elements.

By applying coating-material to each cut strip after the tab-thickeningstripes have been applied to the web and the web cut into strips eachhaving tabs separated by tab-delining cutcuts along one longitudinaledge thereof, it is possible in one and the same operation to applycoating material to one side preferably the exposed side, and to all cutedges, including both longitudinal edges, thereby effectively protectingthe elements against weather inuences. 7

In the accompanying drawing Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation,partially in section, oi"

an arrangement of apparatus which may be employed for carrying out theprocess of this invention; Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the webas it travels through the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a diagrammaticperspective view showing the cut web as it leaves the longitudinalcutters and indicating the path of movement of the cut strips resultingin the separation thereof; Fig. 4 is a vertical section partly inelevation of apparatus which may be employed for the application of thebutt thickening coating to the strips;-

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the apparatus of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken through one of the tabs of a thickbutt shingle resulting from the practice of the process diagrammaticallyillustrated in Fig. 1; Fig. 'l is a vertical section taken through `oneof the tabs of a modied form of thick butt shingle which may result fromthe practice of the process of this invention, and Fig. 8 is a verticalsection taken through one of the tabs of still another modified form ofshingle ernbodying this invention.

Referring to the drawing, a web A of roofing material such as felt ofthe desired width is led through the saturating tank 5, where it may beimpregnated with a suitable waterproofing compound such as asphalt ortar. The saturated web then passes between the squeeze rolls il whichremove excess saturant or, if desired, between rolls which do not removesaturant instead of through the squeeze rolls 6, to and through dryingrack 1, which allows the saturated web to cool somewhat. The web is thenfed through the coating rolls 8 and 9 by means of which a relativelythin coat of weatherproong compound such as tar or asphalt (usually of ahigher melting point than that of the saturant) is applied to both facesof the impregnated sheet. Coating material may be applied to the sheetjust before it passes between rolls 8 and 9 by means of a spout it, theroll 8 functioning to uniformly distribute the coating material over theface of the web, 'While the coating material on the web is still softand tacky, the web passes under the hoppers il and i2 and aboutreversing rolls i3 and id.

The hoppers il and l2 may be of usual design, hopper i l containingcrushed slate or other wearresisting granular material of any suitablecolor or mixture of colors, which may be showered upon the face of thecoated web by means of a distributor roll il' to surface the web. Hopperl2 may contain talc, mica or other antistick material in iinely dividedform. Distributor roll i2 in hopper I2 showers the antistick materialtherein onto the rear surface of the web as it passes about roll I3,thus rendering the rear surface of the web non-cementitious.

The thus coated and surfaced web now passes over guide-roll l5, coolingand calendering rolls IIE and i1, guide-roll I8 and over the plate I9 ofcoating appliance I9. Coating appliance l5 in the embodiment of theinvention shown in Figs. 1, 4 and 5 involves two containers 2i forcoating material such as asphalt or other waterproofing material, eachin communication with a coating roll 22 having selected portions 23thereof, adapted to receive coating material from container 2l and applythe same in stripes to the surfaced web While the latter is maintainedin contact with the portions 23 of roll 22 by plate i9'. The amount ofcoating material delivered by portions 23 may be controlled by doctorblade 24 so that any desired thickness of coating layer is applied tothe surfaced web. In the embodiment of the invention shown in thedrawing, two coating stripes 25 and 26 are formed on the surfaced web,of a width sufficient to produce four shingles cut lengthwise therefrom,each stripe 4being of a Width sumcient to cover the tab portions of twoelements cut tab-to-tab as indicated in the diagrammatic plan of Fig. 2,but it will be understood that if a wider or narrower web is employedmore or less stripes respectively would be applied.

' The thus coated web then passes under'the hopper 21 containing mineralgrit such as mica, crushed slate, etc., which is showered from thehopper onto the stripes of coating material by means of a distributingroll 21'. The hopper 2l may be provided with partitions formingcompartments of a width corresponding to that of the stripes 25, 26.Mineral grit in these compartments is supplied only to the stripes 25,26 and not to the remainder of the web. 'In the passage of the web aboutthe reversing roll 28 the mineral grit is partially imbedded in thestripes of coating material and caused to adhere thereto.

From reversing roll 28 the web passes over guide rolls 29 and 30,between rolls 3i and 32 to the cutting cylinders 33. The cuttingcylinders 33 slit the web longitudinally midway along the coatingstripes 25 and 26, as indicated by the reference numerals 34 and 35 andalso longitudinally along line 36 which occurs on the longitudinalmedian line of the web. Tab-defining severance of the web by means ofthelongitudinal cuts 3d, 35 and 36. These tab-defining cutouts, it will benoted, occur in the coating stripes 25 and 2S.

The cut web now passes onto conveyor bands e2 and 33. Strips 38 and Mlare carried by bands 62 in a downward direction while strips 39 and ilare carried by bands 43 in an upward direction, as appears clearly fromFig. 3. Strips 38 and di? are thus moved in the same longitudinaldirection as the direction of movement of the portions of the web fromwhich they are cut but in a different horizontal plane from that inwhich strips 39 and lli are moved. Strips 39 and il also travel in thesame longitudinal direction as the direction of movement of the portionsof web A from which they are cut and pass over idler roll M while strips38 and 4i! pass over idler roll 65. Thus the strips are separatedwithout distortion to give ready access to the cut edges, permittingeffective sealing of the cut edges.

The strips are now ready to have applied thereto the coating ofweather-resisting material such as asphalt, tar or other bituminousmaterial covering the entire face thereof, and which coating. ispreferably extended to seal the out edges including both longitudinaledges and the edges of the tab-defining cutouts. This coating materialmaybe applied by means of any suitable coating mechanism, there beingone such coating mechanism for each strip. The coating mechanism maycomprise a container 46 which supplies the coating material to thecoating roll 41 and which may have a doctor blade such as that shown inFig. 4 for controlling the amount -of coating material delivered by thecoating roll 41. This coating roll is designed to supply a slight excessof coating material to the strip, the excess of coating material owingover the longitudinal edges onto the cut edges. Instead of the coatingapparatus of Fig. 4, coating material may be sprayed onto the face' andthe edges of each strip.

Y While the last mentioned coating material is still soft and plastic,the strips pass under crushed slate hoppers 48, one for each strip.These hoppers are equipped with distributor rolls 48' for showeringcrushed slate or other wear-resisting material upon .the coating layercovering the strip. The strips then pass over the reversing rolls 49 and50 which press the crushed slate or other mineral grit into the plasticcoating. From reversing rolls 50 the strips are conducted over thecooling rolls 5| between the feed rolls 52 over the timing rolls 53 andbetween the feed rolls 54. Projections upon the periphery of timingrolls 53 engage in the. notches between the tabs upon the strips.Transverse cutters 55 are so -synchronized with the timing rolls 53 thatthe strips are cut along a line of severance between the rtabs to form anished thick butt shingle strip or element, as indicated in Fig. 2. Fromthe transverse cutting mechanism` 55 the strips may be fed through achute or slide 55 to a suitable packing mechanism (not shown).

Fig. 6 discloses the element resulting from the process hereinabovedescribed. From this figure it will be noted that the element involvesa. felted fibrous foundation 56 which may be and preferably is the usualroofingfelt. This felt, as hereinabove described, is saturated withbituminous material and then both sides are completely coated withbituminous material forming coating layers 51 and 58. Mica, Italc, orother antistick material, layer 59, is partially imbedded in the coatinglayer 51 and mineral grit layer 60, such as crushed-slate, is partiallyimbedded in the coating layer 58. Afurther coating 6I is supplied to theback of the element covering only that portion of the back correspondingapproximately to the area of the element intended -to be exposed. In thecase of a shingle intended to be laid with the thick butt portions inlapping relartion, the coating on the back may cover that portion of thearea intended to be exposed plus the lap between the thick butt portionsof contiguous courses. In the case of a siding element layer 6| maycover an area somewhat less than the area intended to be exposed to rtheweather. Mineral grit layer 62 is: partially imbedded in the coatinglayer 6|. A further coating layer 63 extends over the surfacing layerand covers the entire'face of the element and is extended rto seal bothlongitudinal edges 64 and 65 as well as all edges of the cutouts.Mineral grit layer 66 is partially imbedded in the coating layer 63.

The element of Fig. 7 differs from that of Fig. 6 chiefly in theomission of the 'coating layer 51 and the grit layer 59. Thiselement,`as will be understood, can readily be made by passing a roongweb through the roof-lng instrumentalities hereinabove described,omitting coating roll 9 which applies the coating material to the backof the web and also the surfacing hopper |21from which surfacingmaterial is applied to the coating layer produced bycoating roll 9.

The thick butt shingle of Fig. 8 differs from that of Fig'. 6 chiey inthat it has coating layer 6| and surfacing layer 62 on the face insteadof on the back and has the co'ating layer 63 extending over thesurfacing layer 62 as well as the remainder of the face of the element.'I'he shingle of Fig. 8 may be made employing the roofinginstrumentalities of Fig. 1 modied so that instead of applying a coatinglayer directly to y the saturated web extending over the entire facethereof, the coating stripes 2'5 and 26 are applied directly to the faceof the saturated felt web, while the back of the web is coatedthroughout the entire extent thereof. In other words, the apparatus ofFig. 1 is modified so that instead of the coating roll 8, the coatingdelivery spout l0 and surfacing hopper Il, coating apparatus I9 andsurfacing hopper -26 are em-V ployed. Hence, when the saturated webpasses through the first coating step, the back thereof will becompletely covered and stripes of coating material corresponding, to y25and 26 will be applied to the face of the web. As the'thus coated webpasses through the surfacing equipment the coating material is surfacedwith mineral grit and the surfaced web is then passed through thecutting cylinders 33' andthe other roofing instrumentalities followingthe cutters 33 shown on Fig. 1.

By theterm mineral grit as `used in the claims herein, it is intended toinclude surfacing materials such as mica, talc, soapstone, crushed rock,slate and other granules employed to cover the back or face of rooflng.

It will be noted that the thick butt shingles of this invention may bemade in 'a continuous operation employing existing roong equipment andrequires substantially no manuallabor in the carrying out of any of thesteps thereof. Moreover, it wi'll be noted that the process of thisinvention involves the manipulation, first, of a wide' web 4throughcoating and surfacing appliances, then of narrower webs produced by thecutting of the wide web into strips, which wide and narrow webs areinherently of such character that they require little or no support.That is to say, the final step in `applicants process is the transversecutting of the strips yinto shingles; prior to this step the base fromwhich the elements are produced is in web form so that the inherentstrength thereof may be utilized to e'ect its conveyance through theroofing instrumentallties, and manual manipulation or use of conveyorsfor handling short strips is not necessary. Although the process hasbeen described as being applicable to the production of thick buttshingles continuously from the raw felt, it is'obvious that the processmay be employed to make thick butt shingles from felt which haspreviously been saturated or from felt which has been saturated, coatedand surfaced.

It is to be understood that this invention is not restricted to thepresent disclosure votherwise than as defined by the appended claims.For eX- ample, instead of having the tab-defining cutouts extend to apoint shont of the edges of the coating stripes 25, 26 as shown in Fig.2, these cut-outs may extend Ibeyond the edges of the coating stripesand serve as aligning guides to indicate the desired position ofoverlying elements. Siding elements are preferably made with the cutoutsextending slightly abo-ve the tab thickening stripes of coatingmaterial.

I claim:

1. A thick butt composition shingle intended to be laid with other likeshingles in overlapping courses constitu-ted of a saturated fibrous basehaving on the side inten-ded to Ibe exposed to the weather two layers ofcoating material covering the entire face thereof each of said layershaving miner-al grit imbedded therein and the back of said felt basehaving a layer of coating material covering the entire back thereof,grit'l partially imbedded in the layer of coating material, and havingfa stripe of coating material overlying said grit and .covering only theportion of the area of the element intended to be exposed to theweather, mineral grit partially imbedded in the said stripe of coatingmaterial, the top coating layer on -the face of the element beingextended to cover the out edges of the element and to seal the same. l

2. A roong element comprising a strip of saturated fibrous materialhaving a coating of adhesive material and granules applied to the uppersurface thereof and entirely covering the same, a second coating ofadhesive material and graning and entirely covering the same, a thirdcoating of adhesive material and finely divided granular materialapplied te and 'entirely covering the low-er surface of `the said strip,and a fourth vcoating of adhesive and granular material applied to thethird coating and extending from thebottom of the strip `toward butterminait-ing short of the top thereof.

'3. A roong element comprising a strip off siaturalted fibrous materialhaving a coating of adhesive material and granules entirely c'overingtheupper surface thereof, a Iseeond coating of adhesive material andgranules applied to the upper surface of the rst coating and entirelycovering the same, a third coating of adhesive material and finelydivided granular material applied to and entirelyv covering the lowersurface of Ithe said strip, and a fourth coating of adhesve andgranulvarnaterial applied to the third coating and extending from thebottom of the strip toward but termin-ating short of the top thereof,the said strip being provided with slots extending upwardly from thebottom edge there- 1()v of :to form tabs, the tops of the slots beinglocated below the top of the iourth coating.

BENJAMIN SWEEDLER.

